Read Silver Girl for Free Online

what you can,” Connie said. “But there’s no pressure.”
    “Okay,” Meredith whispered.

    On their way back to Tom Nevers, Connie noticed a commotion at the rotary. News vans were clustered in the parking lot of the
Inquirer and Mirror,
the island newspaper. Connie did a double take.
Were
those news vans?
    “Get down,” Connie said. “Those are reporters.” She checked the rearview mirror. “ CNN , ABC .”
    Meredith bent in half; she was as low as the seatbelt would allow. “You’re kidding,” she said.
    “I kid you not.”
    “I can’t believe this,” Meredith said. “I can’t believe they care where I am. Well, of course they care where I am. Of course the whole world needs to know that I am now summering on Nantucket. So they can make me look bad. So they can make it seem like I’m still living a life of luxury.”
    “Which you are,” Connie said, trying to smile.
    “Why couldn’t you live someplace awful?” Meredith said. “Why couldn’t you live in East Saint Louis? Why couldn’t they be reporting that Mrs. Delinn was spending the summer in hot and dangerous East Saint Louis?”
    “This isn’t funny,” Connie said. She checked her rearview mirror. The road behind them was clear. Connie checked again. “Well, guess what. They’re not following us.”
    “They’re not?”
    Connie motored on. She felt the teensiest bit disappointed. “False alarm, I guess.” She tried to think why there would have been TV vans at the rotary, and then she remembered a third-or fourth-tier news story, buried way beneath the sentencing of Freddy Delinn. “Oh, that’s right!” she said. “The president is here this weekend!”
    Meredith sat up. “You scared me.” She was doing some audible Lamaze breathing to calm herself down, and Connie remembered when Meredith was in the hospital after giving birth to Leo. Connie had taken two-year-old Ashlyn to the hospital to see Meredith and the baby. Freddy had been as proud as a goddamned rooster, handing out expensive (not to mention illegal) Cuban cigars; he’d pushed one on Connie, saying, “Go home and give it to Wolf. He’s going to love it.” Connie remembered feeling jealous that giving birth had come so easily for Meredith (Connie had slogged through twenty-three hours of labor with Ashlyn and she’d suffered a uterine rupture, which precluded her from having any more children). Meredith had said, “Thank God, Freddy got his boy and the hallowed Delinn name will live on.” This had upset Connie; she had felt defensive that Ashlyn was a girl and that there would be no more children to carry on the hallowed Flute name. Feeling bad about this led to resentment that, while Connie had made the trip from Bethesda to New York to see Meredith in the hospital, Meredith hadn’t made the reverse trip two years earlier when Ashlyn was born. It was amazing how memories intruded like that. It was amazing how Connie’s mind held the good and the bad of every interaction, swirled together like children’s paints. Meredith might only remember happiness that Connie had come, or recall the cute outfit that Connie had brought. When Meredith thought of Leo being born, she might only think,
Leo is under investigation.
    Connie turned into her driveway and parked in front of the house. Meredith scrambled to get the groceries out of the car.
    “You go in and relax,” Meredith said. “I’ll get these.”
    Connie laughed. “You’re not an indentured servant,” she said. “But thank you for the help.”
    She flashed back to that day at the hospital. Meredith had allowed Ashlyn to hold her hours-old infant, even though the head nurse strongly advised against it.
It’ll be fine!
Meredith had said.
Connie and I will be right here.
Meredith had snapped the pictures herself. She’d had one framed and sent it to Connie. And then, of course, she’d asked Connie to be Leo’s godmother.
    “It’s nice to have someone else around,” Connie said.
    “Even me?”